And sometimes I'm just a darn flaky artiste!

Hello all! I'm back from the furthest east you can go in North America (well I think there is actually still a jury out on that one, but I'm still saying it so there)!

It was a lovely trip and I shall regale you with details anon, but I can't hook up my camera to my computer yet, and the story requires pictures so you'll all just have to be patient. Thank you all so much for your well wishes on my birthday! It was a lovely day, and the wedding was so nice, but again . . . pictures.

Anyway, as such I thought I would go back to that blog entry I did ages ago where I asked for suggestions on what to write about here at The Temp, The Actress and The Writer and talk about one of those topics today. And I thought I would address something that has come up a few times in the comments section, and just really in life in general.

And that is: "What the heck are you up to now anyway, writing wise?"

The short answer is I am writing the sequel to Alex. In fact that tends to be the only answer as I haven't really answered the question in any great detail. The reason for that is that sometimes I'm just a darn flaky artiste.

Now what do I mean by that kind of insulting phrase? I mean that for the first time, I think really ever, I am surprisingly protective of my writing. You may have already got the sense from this blog that I'm pretty open about stuff, and have no issues showing off really cool stuff to do with me. Whenever I have written anything in the past I have been very happy to let anyone, heck everyone, read over my glorious prose. Even if I know it isn't quite right yet, it has never really been an issue for me as I've always assumed I'd be able to fix it up.

But this time. This time. I dunno. I feel . . . nervous. Now this isn't to say I don't like what I'm writing. I must confess there are several moments in this new book that amuse me highly. And heck I read the odd section to my parents over the phone, but no one has seen the lion's share of it. It's not finished true. But it's getting pretty close, and I still haven't shared it with anyone. Not even you, my sexy readers.

Why is this, is then the logical next question I must ask myself. Fear, I suppose. I mean I've never written to a deadline before. Expectations, no doubt. Lots of people seem to be enjoying Alex, will this one live up to it? Tradition. My agent says that the second book does tend to be the hardest. But I also think there is something truly artist diva about me right now, a part of me that wants to keep the story to myself, a part of me that likes the intimate relationship I am having with the characters, and doesn't want to share it just yet. And that totally freaks me out, because I have always tried to disassociate myself from such 'artiste' sounding things, to be, as a matter of fact, the anti-artiste.

So I am fighting not only a strange battle with actually sharing the work with someone, but an internal struggle too that is dealing with the pragmatic versus the creative.

It's all rather interesting.

Anyway . . . .

All that said, I am going to just brave it (I did say back at New Year's it was the year of being brave) and tell you a little bit about the sequel itself.

First of all it isn't really what you are going to expect as it doesn't start off with Alex at all. Instead we are introduced to Timothy Freshwater, a boy often told he is too smart for his own good. What happens is we follow his adventure until two thirds of the way into the book, where he meets up with Alex. So in a way it is a bit like both their adventures are running parallel to each other and then continue on together for the last third of Timothy's story. And I so can't tell you much more on that tract because then I'd be giving away the end of Alex's adventure.

. . . in fact . . .

. . . I don't want to give away too much about Timothy's adventure either. I do want to say it involves a dragon, but maybe I shouldn't as it isn't the kind of dragon one usually expects. Well maybe I won't mention it then. Just to be safe.

So there you go. A little inside scoop. A tiny taster in one of those ridiculously small pink plastic spoons from Ye Old Ice Cream Shoppe (interestingly did you know that back in the day "Ye" was not pronounced how we pronounce it, but rather the "Y" represented a "Th" sound so actually back in the day they just said the word as we do?) I hope you found it flavourful.

And I totally promise pictures next time!


It's good to be back.